The radio frequency (RF) pulsed field of MRI can couple to an implanted lead in such a way that electromagnetic forces (EMFs) are induced in the lead. The amount of energy that is induced is related to a number of complex factors, but in general, is dependent upon the local electric field that is tangent to the lead and the integral of the electric field strength along the lead. In certain situations, these EMFs can cause currents to flow into distal electrodes or in the electrode interface with body tissue. It has been documented that when this current becomes excessive, overheating of said lead or its associated electrode or overheating of the associated interface with body tissue can occur. There have been cases of damage to such body tissue which has resulted in loss of capture of cardiac pacemaking pulses or tissue damage severe enough to result in brain damage or multiple amputations, and the like.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is also a significant issue. It has been well demonstrated through various incidents and publications that an implanted lead can act as an antenna and pick up unwanted signals from the patient environment. In the past, there have been problems with microwave ovens, cell phones, and the like. Stray signals that are picked up on implanted leads can be coupled to the interior of the AMD and interfere with sensitive electronic circuits. In cardiac pacemakers, instances of EMI being detected as normal cardiac rhythms have resulted in pacemaker inhibition which can be life-threatening.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of medicine's most valuable diagnostic tools. MRI is, of course, extensively used for imaging, but is also used for interventional medicine (surgery). In addition, MRI is used in real time to guide ablation catheters, neurostimulator tips, deep brain probes and the like. An absolute contra-indication for pacemaker or neurostimulator patients means that these patients are excluded from MRI. This is particularly true of scans of the thorax and abdominal areas. Because of MRI's incredible value as a diagnostic tool for imaging organs and other body tissues, many physicians simply take the risk and go ahead and perform MRI on a pacemaker patient. The literature indicates a number of precautions that physicians should take in this case, including limiting the power of the MRI RF pulsed field (Specific Absorption Rate—SAR level), programming the pacemaker to fixed or asynchronous pacing mode, and then careful reprogramming and evaluation of the pacemaker and patient after the procedure is complete. There have been reports of latent problems with cardiac pacemakers or other AMDs after an MRI procedure, sometimes occurring many days later. Moreover, there are a number of papers that indicate that the SAR level is not entirely predictive of the heating that would be found in implanted leads or devices. For example, for magnetic resonance imaging devices operating at the same magnetic field strength and also at the same SAR level, considerable variations have been found relative to heating of implanted leads. It is speculated that SAR level alone is not a good predictor of whether or not an implanted device or its associated lead system will overheat.
There are three types of electromagnetic fields used in an MRI unit. The first type is the main static magnetic field designated B0 which is used to align protons in body tissue. The field strength varies from 0.5 to 3.0 Tesla in most of the commonly available MRI units in clinical use. Some of the newer research MRI system fields can go as high as 11.7 Tesla.
The second type of field produced by magnetic resonance imaging is the pulsed RF field which is generated by the body coil or head coil. This is used to change the energy state of the protons and elicit MRI signals from tissue. The RF field is homogeneous in the central region and has two main components: (1) the electric field is circularly polarized in the actual plane; and (2) the H field, sometimes generally referred to as the net magnetic field in matter, is related to the electric field by Maxwell's equations and is relatively uniform. In general, the RF field is switched on and off during measurements and usually has a frequency of 21 MHz to 64 MHz to 128 MHz depending upon the static magnetic field strength. The frequency of the RF pulse for hydrogen scans varies by the Lamar equation with the field strength of the main static field where: RF PULSED FREQUENCY in MHz=(42.56) (STATIC FIELD STRENGTH IN TESLA). There are also phosphorous and other types of scanners wherein the Lamar equation would be different.
The third type of electromagnetic field is the time-varying magnetic gradient fields designated BX, BY, BZ, which are used for spatial localization. These change their strength along different orientations and operating frequencies on the order of 1 kHz. The vectors of the magnetic field gradients in the X, Y and Z directions are produced by three sets of orthogonally positioned coils and are switched on only during the measurements.
At the frequencies of interest in MRI, RF energy can be absorbed and converted to heat. The power deposited by RF pulses during MRI is complex and is dependent upon the power (Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) Level) and duration of the RF pulse, the transmitted frequency, the number of RF pulses applied per unit time, and the type of configuration of the RF transmitter coil used. The amount of heating also depends upon the volume of tissue imaged, the electrical resistivity of tissue and the configuration of the anatomical region imaged. There are also a number of other variables that depend on the placement in the human body of the AMD and the length and trajectory of its associated lead(s). For example, it will make a difference how much EMF is induced into a pacemaker lead system as to whether it is a left or right pectoral implant. In addition, the routing of the lead and the lead length are also very critical as to the amount of induced current and heating that would occur.
The cause of heating in an MRI environment is twofold: (a) RF field coupling to the lead can occur which induces significant local heating; and (b) currents induced between the distal tip and tissue during MRI RF pulse transmission sequences can cause local Ohms Law heating in tissue next to the distal tip electrode of the implanted lead. The RF field of an MRI scanner can produce enough energy to induce RF voltages in an implanted lead and resulting currents sufficient to damage some of the adjacent myocardial tissue. Tissue ablation (destruction resulting in scars) has also been observed. The effects of this heating are not readily detectable by monitoring during the MRI. Indications that heating has occurred would include an increase in pacing capture threshold (PCT), venous ablation, Larynx or esophageal ablation, myocardial perforation and lead penetration, or even arrhythmias caused by scar tissue. Such long term heating effects of MRI have not been well studied yet for all types of AMD lead geometries. There can also be localized heating problems associated with various types of electrodes in addition to tip electrodes. This includes ring electrodes or pad electrodes. Ring electrodes are commonly used with a wide variety of abandoned implanted device leads including cardiac pacemakers, and neurostimulators, and the like. Pad electrodes are very common in neurostimulator applications. For example, spinal cord stimulators or deep brain stimulators can include a plurality of pad electrodes to make contact with nerve tissue. A good example of this also occurs in a cochlear implant. In a typical cochlear implant there would be sixteen pad electrodes placed up into the cochlea. Several of these pad electrodes make contact with auditory nerves.
Variations in the pacemaker lead length and implant trajectory can significantly affect how much heat is generated. A paper entitled, HEATING AROUND INTRAVASCULAR GUIDEWIRES BY RESONATING RF WAVES by Konings, et al., Journal of Magnetic Resonance imaging, Issue 12:79-85 (2000), does an excellent job of explaining how the RF fields from MRI scanners can couple into implanted leads. The paper includes both a theoretical approach and actual temperature measurements. In a worst-case, they measured temperature rises of up to 74 degrees C. after 30 seconds of scanning exposure. The contents of this paper are incorporated herein by reference.
The effect of an MRI system on the leads of pacemakers, ICDs, neurostimulators and the like, depends on various factors, including the strength of the static magnetic field, the pulse sequence, the strength of RF field, the anatomic region being imaged, and many other factors. Further complicating this is the fact that each patient's condition and physiology is different and each lead implant has a different length and/or implant trajectory in body tissues. Most experts still, conclude that MRI for the pacemaker patient should not be considered safe.
It is well known that many of the undesirable effects in an implanted lead system from MRI and other medical diagnostic procedures are related to undesirable induced EMFs in the lead system and/or RF currents in its distal tip (or ring) electrodes. This can lead to overheating of body tissue at or adjacent to the distal tip.
Distal tip electrodes can be unipolar, bipolar, multipolar and the like. It is very important that excessive RF current not flow at the interface between the lead distal tip electrode or electrodes and body tissue. In a typical cardiac pacemaker, for example, the distal tip electrode can be passive or of a screw-in helix type as will be more fully described. In any event, it is very important that excessive RF current not flow at this junction between the distal tip electrode and, for example, into surrounding cardiac or nerve tissue. Excessive current at the distal electrode to tissue interface can cause excessive heating to the point where tissue ablation or even perforation can occur. This can be life-threatening for cardiac patients. For neurostimulator patients, such as deep brain stimulator patients, thermal injury can cause permanent disability or even be life threatening. Similar issues exist for spinal cord stimulator patients, cochlear implant patients and the like.
A very important and possibly life-saving solution is to be able to control overheating of implanted leads during an MRI procedure. A novel and very effective approach to this is to first install parallel resonant inductor and capacitor bandstop filters at or near the distal electrode of implanted leads. For cardiac pacemaker, these are typically known as the tip and ring electrodes. One is referred to U.S. Pat. No. 7,363,090 and U.S. Pub. Nos. 2007/0112398 A1; 2008/0071313 A1; 2008/0043376 A1; 2008/0024912 A1; 2008/0132987 A1; and 2008/0116997 A1, the contents of all of which are incorporated herein. U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0112398 A1 relates generally to L-C bandstop filter assemblies, particularly of the type used in active implantable medical devices (AIMDs) such as cardiac pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, neurostimulators and the like, which raise the impedance of internal electronic or related wiring components of the medical device at selected frequencies in order to reduce or eliminate currents induced from undesirable electromagnetic interference (EMI) signals.
Other types of component networks may also be used in implantable leads to raise their impedance at MRI frequencies. For example, a series inductor may be used as a single element low pass filter. The inductance will tend to look like a high impedance at high frequencies, such as the RF pulsed frequencies of a typical MRI scanner. For more information on this refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,010 (Tsitlik et al.), the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,363,090 and U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0112398 A1 show resonant L-C bandstop filters placed at the distal tip and/or at various locations along the medical device leads or circuits. These L-C bandstop filters inhibit or prevent current from circulating at selected frequencies of the medical therapeutic device. For example, for an MRI system operating at 1.5 Tesla, the pulsed RF frequency is 63.84 MHz, as described by the Lamor Equation for hydrogen. The L-C bandstop filter can be designed to resonate at or near 63.84 MHz and thus create a high impedance (ideally an open circuit) in the lead system at that selected frequency. For example, the L-C bandstop filter when placed at the distal tip electrode of a pacemaker lead will significantly reduce RF currents from flowing through the distal tip electrode and into body tissue. The L-C bandstop filter also reduces EMI from flowing in the leads of a pacemaker thereby providing added EMI protection to sensitive electronic circuits. In general, the problem associated with implanted leads is minimized when there is a bandstop filter placed at or adjacent to its distal tip electrodes.
At high RF frequencies, an implanted lead acts very much as like an antenna and a transmission line. An inductance element disposed in the lead will change its transmission line characteristics. The inductance can act as its own antenna pick-up mechanism in the lead and therefore, ideally, should be shielded. When one creates a very high impedance at the distal electrode to tissue interface by installation of a resonant bandstop filter as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,038,900 and as further described in U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0112398 A1, there is created an almost open circuit which is the equivalent of an unterminated transmission line. This causes a reflection of MRI induced RF energy back towards the proximal end where the AIMD (for example, a pacemaker) is connected. In order to completely control the induced energy in an implanted lead, one must take a system approach. In particular, a methodology is needed whereby energy can be dissipated from the lead system at the proximal end in a way that does not cause overheating either at the distal electrode interface or at the proximal end cap. Maximizing energy transfer from an implanted lead is more thoroughly described in U.S. Pub. No. 2010/0160997 A1, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, there is a need for attenuating the RF energy that can be induced onto or into an implanted lead system. Further, there is a need to provide shielding of passive network components, including any inductors that would be disposed along the length of the lead. Such shielding should reduce or prevent external electromagnetic fields from coupling RF electromagnetic energy to said passive component or network and, in particular, its inductive component(s). The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.